The exemplary embodiment relates to selection of media size and scaling in image rendering and find particular application in an apparatus and method for assisting a user to select suitable media and scaling for a print job.
Image rendering devices such as printers and multifunction devices (MFDs) often incorporate automatic features for selection of print media and scaling, known as Auto Paper Selection (APS) and Auto Reduce/Enlarge (ARE) for performing copy jobs. The APS feature selects a suitable paper size for printing, based on the size of the image to be printed. This generally entails selecting the next largest paper size if the image size does not exactly match one of the default paper sizes available. The ARE feature automatically reduces or enlarges the image to be printed to fit a given paper size. The APS and ARE features are mutually exclusive and are also constrictive in their application. APS is generally limited to default media types and colors and can give unexpected results for cases where an exact match is not found. ARE only scales from image size to a selected output size. The algorithms are also generally implicit, and the outcome may not be what the user would like (e.g., rotating a non-standard image or scaling it to undesirable levels). This lack of visibility into the underlying selection process often requires trial and error by the user to manually select the desired features, wasting user time and paper.
There remains a need for a system and method for assisting a user in selection of a combination of paper and reduce/enlarge features without the need for rendering multiple prints of candidate combinations to identify a suitable one.